Wisdom: April 2019
Table of Contents
Wisdom
Paul writes in Romans 16:19, “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Such is the divine remedy for the evil in this world, even as our Lord Himself put it figuratively in Matthew 10:16, combining the prudence of the serpent with the harmlessness (or simplicity, for it is the same word) of the dove. Human wisdom seeks to guard itself by a thorough knowledge of the world and of all evil ways. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, devilish. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, uncontentious and unfeigned. It does not need to cultivate acquaintance with evil. It knows good in Christ; it is satisfied, and it adores. It hears and loves the Shepherd’s voice; a stranger’s voice it knows not and will not follow. And this suits the simplest soul brought to the knowledge of God, so that it becomes the wisest, because it alone glorifies the Lord. Indeed, it is the only path of safety for us, being such as we are and in such a world, for in the world evil as yet has the upper hand, though the believer has the secret of victory over it, already vanquished in the cross of Christ.
W. Kelly
Wisdom — Where Is It to Be Found?
Concerning wisdom, we read, “Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living .... seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living. ... Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom” (Job 28:13,21,28). The fear of the Lord is the setting aside of our own will, so that the will of God as expressed in the Word directs our path.
“After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching [that is, the actual thing preached] to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).
Before Creation
Wisdom was before creation (Prov. 8), and creation displayed it (Psa. 104:24). Wisdom entered this world in the person of Christ, but man by his wisdom knew Him not (Acts 13:27). The world in its “wisdom” rejected Him. His death is the complete setting aside of the first man (2 Cor. 5:14-18), for in new creation, “all things are of God.” The pathway of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ on earth is the path of wisdom in a world where fallen man, by his lust and his “wisdom,” corrupts himself and rejects God, revealed in Christ. The natural man is the slave of his lusts (John 8:34), and his mind is at enmity against God (Rom. 8:7).
Christ, the perfect, obedient Man, lived “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). He has left those of us that are His own an example that we should “follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). The “sermon on the mount” (Matt. 5-7) is the wisdom of God in a world of evil. The new nature in the child of God will manifest these moral excellencies, in the measure in which the old nature is kept in the place of death (2 Cor. 4:10).
Perfect in Knowledge
God’s wisdom is perfect, because of His perfect knowledge of all things. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor” (Rom. 11:33-34). Man can never discover the things that belong to revelation. This is just the theme in the Book of Ecclesiastes. It shows us the extent of man’s wisdom “under the sun” apart from God’s revelation. Creation and resurrection are two things that belong to revelation. The wisdom of man could never discover either the one or the other, as we see from Acts 17:23-32.
Man is a fallen creature and his fallen nature loves sin. He is at enmity with God and does not want God’s wisdom. To him “stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Prov. 9:17), but this same Book of Proverbs shows us that “the way of transgressors is hard” (Prov. 13:15). This is because Proverbs shows the way of wisdom in an evil world. It is heavenly wisdom in which man is called to walk, instead of yielding to the evil of a fallen nature. These moral principles are of immense value for young and old in the pathway of life.
New Life
Now Christianity supplies that which is needed to walk rightly in these ways, by giving the believer a new life, a new power, and an object for the affections of his heart. Christ is now our life (Col. 3:4), the Holy Spirit that dwells within us is the power for godliness (Rom. 8:4), while Christ in glory is the end of the path for faith (Phil. 3:14). He who knows all and has understanding of all, has given us in the Book of Proverbs the way of wisdom in all the various relationships, temptations and vexations that are met along the pathway of life.
Now the wisdom of God is not an extension of man’s wisdom, neither is it an improvement upon it. It is always the very opposite of man’s wisdom. Apart from the revelation of truth found in the Word of God, man makes the world in which he lives the horizon of all his thoughts. His whole life is governed by these worldly motives. Now the voice of wisdom, as found in the Word, would teach us to learn God’s wisdom.
Natural Relationships
Natural relationships form beautiful pictures of the wisdom of the ways of God. The parent has authority given of God (Eph. 6:1), but it is authority to be used in loving wisdom to do the child good all the days of his life. Love is here the motive spring of authority rightly used. Now it is the love of God that moved His heart to give us this wisdom from Himself to guide our feet through a world filled with evil, and with the subtlety of an enemy who would use the fallen nature within us to lead in the paths of sin and folly.
The relationship of husband and wife, too, is a picture of Christ and the church. If every husband would remember that his relationship is to be patterned in the manner of Christ’s love to the church and if every wife would remember her place of submission is to be as the church is to Christ, what a blessing it would be! No relationship in life can be ordered aright without this wisdom from God. Alas, many a dear child of God has neglected it in his home life, even though he may have, at the same time, shown diligence in other ways of service to the Lord. But our whole Christian life is to be characterized by pleasing God, not pleasing self.
Reason and Revelation
Let those who attend school and college ever remember that the things that belong to revelation are beyond reason. Reason must begin with facts. It can never give you the facts. Nothing that is known as a fact is the fruit of reason; it is always the fruit of testimony or experience. There are things in the Word of God beyond reason, and indeed it must be so because they come from God. A God whom man’s reason is equal to is not God at all. A man must be master of a subject to know it rightly, and he cannot be this of God. God and His wisdom are utterly beyond man.
When we come to something we cannot understand, we should just say with David in Psalm 139:6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” Let us ever come to the Word of God as newborn babes and allow our thoughts to be formed by the precious wisdom of God. “Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deut. 8:3).
H. E. Hayhoe (adapted)
Hidden Wisdom
In 1 Corinthians 1 the Apostle has shown that Christ crucified entirely sets aside the flesh, leaving no room for man to glory in himself. In chapter 2 the Apostle applies the teaching of chapter 1 to himself and his manner of presenting the testimony of God. He refused the flesh in himself in order to be true to the cross, that there might be no hindrance to the work of the Spirit. In the first five verses the Apostle tells us how he preached the gospel to sinners. The latter part of the chapter tells us how he ministered the deep things of God to the saints.
Human Wisdom
When Paul came to Corinth, he made no appeal to the natural man by a display of human wisdom. He came to announce the testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ and Him crucified — the lowest and most degraded position in which a man can be found. Paul tells these intellectual Corinthians that in order for them to be saved, Christ must go to the cross. To give believers His place before God, He had to take their place before God. There is nothing dignified, heroic or noble about a cross. It is a place of shame, reproach, judgment and death. To tell a man that this is his true place before God makes nothing of all his wisdom and greatness and grandeur. The preaching of the cross makes nothing of all man’s pride. Moreover, Paul himself was among them in a condition that was humiliating to the pride of man. Conscious of his own weakness and the gravity of his message, he was among them in fear and much trembling. Furthermore, in the manner of his preaching he refused every fleshly method in order to leave room for God to work. He did not use eloquent language, which might have attracted to himself.
All this left room for the Spirit to work in mighty power, for if any believe in that which is so humiliating to man, then obviously it is not the wisdom of man that leads them to believe, but the power of the Spirit of God working with them. It is not only a question of the truth they believed, but of the way in which they received it. It was received not from a man, even though that man was an apostle, but from God. Among “perfect” believers — those who were full-grown, in contrast to “babes” (1 Cor. 3:1) — Paul was able to speak of God’s wisdom. The Apostle then proceeds to give us some very definite instruction as to this wisdom, in order that we may not confuse it with the wisdom of man.
Seven Features of Wisdom
First, he tells us that it is not the wisdom of this age, for the intellectual giants of this world “come to naught,” in contrast to the believer who comes to “glory” (vs. 7). Those who shine in the glory of this world come to naught, while those who are naught in this world come to glory.
Second, this wisdom is “the wisdom of God.” If it were the wisdom of man, it could be acquired in the schools of men. Being God’s wisdom, it is outside the program of the schools and beyond the attainment of the human mind.
Third, it is God’s wisdom “in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom”; it cannot be discovered by the wit of man. Moreover, throughout the ages it has been “hidden,” and therefore it is not to be found in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Fourth, this wisdom, which throughout the ages has been hidden, was predetermined before the ages for our glory in the ages yet to come. If our calling makes manifest that believers are the weak and despised of the world, nonetheless they are predestined to glory. We may not be wise or mighty or noble in this world, but we are called to glory.
Fifth, of this wisdom the princes of this world knew nothing; they proved their ignorance by crucifying the Lord of glory. They wholly rejected the One who is the wisdom of God and by whom all the counsels of God are brought to pass. “The Lord of glory” speaks of a wider scene than this earth; it speaks of a universal dominion embracing every created thing and being, over which the crucified One is made Lord.
Sixth, this scene of glory, to which the wisdom of God has destined His people, lies outside the range of the natural man. The Apostle thus quotes the prophet Isaiah to show that God has secrets, into which man as such cannot enter. His eyes, ears and mind can discover wonderful things, but there are things which God has prepared for them that love Him that the natural man has neither seen nor heard, and which are beyond the range of the highest flights of his imagination.
Seventh, the fact that the wisdom of God lies outside the comprehension of the natural man does not imply that they cannot be known, for at once the Apostle says, “God hath revealed them.” If, however, God has revealed these things, it is “by His Spirit.” The Spirit alone is competent to reveal these things, for He searches all things — the deep things of God. We may seek to excuse our lack of spiritual energy by saying that these things are too deep for us, but let us remember that they are not too deep for the Spirit, for He “searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
Inspiration
Furthermore, the things which were made known to the apostles by the revelation of the Spirit have been passed on to us by the inspiration of the Spirit. In the communication of these things the Apostle is careful to shut out any possible error of man by saying that these things are not communicated “in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” This is the apostolic claim for verbal inspiration. The very words used are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual things are communicated by spiritual means. The instruments were not made infallible, but were perfectly guided in their communications. This is inspiration.
Revelation
Thus we learn that the wisdom of God is made known by revelation and communicated to others by inspiration. Now we learn that the reception of the truth is also by the Spirit of God. The natural man cannot receive the things of God; they are foolishness to him; they can only be spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual (not simply he that has the Spirit) discerns all things. One must have the Spirit to be spiritual, but being spiritual implies a condition in which a man is under the control of the Spirit. The spiritual man can discern the motives that govern the world, though the world cannot discern the motives and principles that govern the spiritual man.
Natural – Spiritual – Carnal
In verse 14 the Apostle speaks of the natural man, in verse 15 of the spiritual man, and in chapter 3 of the carnal, or fleshly, man. The natural man is the unconverted man, without the Spirit; the carnal man is the believer, having the Spirit, but walking like the natural man; the spiritual man is the believer walking in the Spirit.
If the first chapter shuts out the flesh in its pride of birth and power and position, this chapter shuts out the mind of man, so that believers may be let into the privilege of having “the mind of Christ” through the Spirit.
The Spirit is the great theme of the chapter. If Paul brings the testimony of God to sinners, it is “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (vs. 4). If God has prepared great blessings for those who love Him, they are revealed unto the apostles by the Spirit (vs. 10). The things that are revealed by the Spirit are fully known to the Spirit (vss. 10-11). The things revealed and known to the apostles are, through them, communicated to others by the Spirit (vs. 13). The things communicated by the apostles are received by the Spirit (vs. 14), the result being that believers are, through the Spirit, instructed in the mind of Christ (vs. 16).
H. Smith (adapted)
God's Wisdom in Christ
All the foolishness of man, even of the saint, is the occasion of bringing out the wisdom of God; all thoughts are turned into good by Him, although this is no excuse for our foolishness. Two things brought out in 1 Corinthians 1 are, first, all that is of man is broken to pieces, and second, God comes in, and the righteousness of man — his carelessness and sin — everything is thoroughly broken to pieces. No flesh can glory in His presence.
Then would He have men not glory at all? Not so. Rather, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (vs. 31). And here we find perfection in strength, wisdom, holiness; we will never have to be ashamed of that which is perfect, and it will never pass away, when everything else fades away. What a glorious thing for the saint! It seems wonderful for a poor sinner to be able to “glory in the Lord.” What a tendency there is in nature to glory in anything else! Man must glory in something; it may even be that he boasts of being the worst of sinners. He may glory in his sins, his wretchedness, anything that attaches to self. When God comes in, there will soon be an end of this; he will hide himself fast enough then and be ashamed of everything he has gloried in before. The state of man by nature is “without God,” even though he may be blessed by Him with all natural things. He would be glad to be out of God’s presence if he could, but in one sense he cannot. Man cannot fly from His presence, yet he is miserable in it.
Self-Righteousness
If a man sets up to be righteous, God will break that down, as He did in Paul. We are easily satisfied with ourselves; a very little righteousness will do. And there is another thing too: Man is content with doing his own will; he knows no obedience. Will that do when God comes in? Christ came not to save the righteous but sinners; therefore, if man is to be saved, he must be treated as a sinner. Where was all the boasted righteousness of Saul of Tarsus? He must be taken up as a poor sinner. All man’s self-righteousness turns out to be pride when it is traced to its root. The “elder brother” in Luke 15 says, What, will he take in a prodigal? His pride will not let him come in to be in company with such a one. There are plenty of elder brothers now, and younger ones too. Man in his vanity would set himself up to be wise, but he is really like a wild ass’s colt. What is his wisdom? He picks up little scraps of knowledge and calls that wisdom; it is man’s wisdom, spinning thoughts to exalt himself. Man is “lighter than vanity.” But “there is a path which no fowl knoweth, and the vulture’s eye hath not seen” (Job 28:7). Real wisdom lies there. All that does not give rest to the conscience is folly and fades away.
Carelessness
Carelessness and boasting of sin and self-righteousness are both folly and vanity. The difference between them is that the self-righteous man is more proud than his neighbor, but in the presence of God every motive of the natural man is seen to be sin, for it is based on self-will. There is a way of deliverance open from the judgment. God speaks to Adam, “Where art thou?” You are naked in His presence, but there is a resource in Christ’s love, and this is granted here, not when we get to heaven. There is heart enough in Jesus to open the heart of the vilest sinner.
Christ – God’s Wisdom for Us
There is love to meet the need; therefore I have no need to hide my sins. It leaves no room for guile in the heart and offers no temptation to whitewash myself. When Christ comes, it puts away all this. Christ Jesus “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and holiness [sanctification], and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). When we got eternal life in Christ, there was death in us, but life is come, and that life is in the Son. Christ is made unto us of God “wisdom.” What kind of wisdom? Divine wisdom. How could God love such a one as I am? There is Christ’s wisdom. When Christ is made wisdom for me, I can do without my own and learn of Him as a little child. How was He wisdom? He went down into the place where death reigned and got the victory over death. The world sinned against God, and He is come into it in mercy: That is wisdom. Wickedness is going on in the world; why does God patiently bear with it? He is saving sinners by Christ the Lord: That is wisdom.
The Needs of Righteousness
“Righteousness” is God’s own perfect righteousness. Not only can I get “wisdom,” which makes me calm and quiet, but “righteousness” in which there is not a flaw. Through His grace He is made to me “sanctification” also. The rule and measure, the power and setting apart of the new life, are all in Christ.
Christ is the key to the puzzle of this world. By Him I may no longer tremble in terror before God. No, I can glory in Him, worshipping Him who is all I need. The more I weigh and ponder it, the more perfect and the more wonderful it seems. We are not to be nibbling a little bit of the law and to think Christ has done all the rest. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is a full Savior, and hence we learn that He is “redemption” too. By this the power of evil and death are set aside. We wait for the redemption of the body. I have got “redemption” now in Christ my head, and I am waiting for the full fruit of it.
Why do we wait? It is the time of His “long-suffering.” We wait for “the hope of righteousness by faith.” Now, in the best and highest sense we are redeemed to Him. “We are in Him that is free, even in His Son Jesus Christ.” We not only have the life of Adam, but are of God in Christ, and this is balm to the heart. What a different position we are in from a sinner trembling before a judge! Whence does all this come? He has taken our hearts up in grace and will wring them, as He took Job and wrung him, to show what was in his heart. What came out was what was in it, or it would not have come out. “Glorying in the Lord” is real humility: In it I confess I am ashamed of myself, but I acknowledge Christ.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
Christ, the Wisdom of God
In Proverbs 8 we find wisdom everywhere, for there Wisdom is personified as the Lord Jesus Himself. “The Lord possessed me” (vs. 22) from before all His works, before He had laid the foundations of the earth and the worlds. In Luke 1 the archangel announced His coming to Mary, and at His birth a multitude of angels and the heavenly host spread the glad tidings that unto men “is born a Savior in the city of David, which is Christ the Lord.” Simeon, in the power of the Holy Spirit, holds this Treasure from above in his arms and celebrates Him as God’s salvation to the very ends of the earth: “A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel.”
Wisdom utters her voice and begins to preach in the city, at the entering in of the gates and, in Luke 4, at Nazareth (where He had been brought up according to human reckoning). Jesus enters into the synagogue, and this Wisdom “stood up for to read.” He takes the book of God’s everlasting counsels and finds the place where it is written “the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me” (Luke 4:18-23).
The Delights in Men
Wisdom’s delights were in the habitable parts of the earth, too, and with the children of men. In Luke 5 He was in a certain city and a man full of leprosy meets Him. Wisdom in grace heals him and the man is clean. Wisdom is found in another city, and at the gates there was a dead man being carried forth, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow (Luke 7). Wisdom finds its new delights by meeting death, and, taking His place in the midst of this scene, in compassion said, “Weep not.” And He came and touched the bier...and delivered the young man to his mother. The time is now come for this Wisdom, in its turn, to be justified by one of its children, and who could do this but the woman of another city who was a sinner? She justifies Him by owning Him, as only a sinner can, and stood behind Him weeping (Luke 7:36-50). Simeon had Wisdom in his arms, but the sinner is at His feet, and He finds His best and sweetest delights with this woman. Wisdom is justified by this child in the house of the Pharisee, and she is justified by infinite wisdom and love: “He said to her, Thy sins are forgiven. ... Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.”
On the Cross
In Luke 23, “Wisdom” takes another place on the cross in order that God might righteously assume the attitude of beseeching sinners to be reconciled to Himself and find His delight in so doing. He there did the work in death and blood, by which He became yet further the Wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. Wisdom (as the fruit of this finished redemption) carries one of its children, a dying thief, away back into the heavens, as the trophy and witness that His delights were with the sons of men. This child justified Wisdom in his expiring breath, saying, “This man hath done nothing amiss,” adding, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Wisdom, in the boundlessness of its own delights, justified the thief by saying, “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise!” The thief has gone up with Wisdom, as a sample to the heavens of what had been gathered from below, and God Himself can come down to make the cross of Christ a mercy seat (see Rom. 3:25) and proclaim Himself in righteousness a just God and the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
Christ Made Wisdom Unto/For Us
By the side of this Wisdom (as in 1 Corinthians 1) all the wisdom of man is foolishness with God and rejected by Wisdom’s children too. “Let no man deceive himself. If any man seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18). This Wisdom that God possessed from the beginning for Himself, He now makes, in sovereign grace and divine holiness, to be unto us our wisdom, for in 1 Corinthians 1:30 it is the hand of God who closes up the circle of our blessedness, by standing in the midst of Wisdom and all her children and saying, “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” May we glory in the Lord below and get outside everything that usurps His name and title, till He comes for His own and is justified by us, in the presence of principalities and powers in the high places of the heavens. The woman of the city who was a sinner brought the precious ointment and anointed Wisdom for herself in the house of the Pharisee, till the day comes when He will be anointed with the oil of gladness above all His fellows in the courts above!
The Remembrancer (adapted)
The Gift of Wisdom
In 1 Corinthians 12:7-8, we read, “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.” If this verse is read in isolation from other scriptures, it might well be misunderstood. Is wisdom a gift that is given only to some believers? Do we not read in this same epistle that “Christ is made unto us wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:30)? Cannot every Christian seek wisdom from God and follow it? Or is the gift of wisdom given for situations outside of our own lives?
We read in Proverbs that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10), and surely this is available to all. While the Old Testament believers did not have the nearness to God that we have in this day of His grace, yet those who sought wisdom found that it begins with the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the recognition of His supreme authority over us and that we are accountable to Him for our conduct. This was true at all times in man’s history. For the believer today, it is not so much the fear of judgment (although there is government in the house of God), but rather it is that holy fear which the Spirit of God produces in our souls—a fear that we may fail to walk in a way that is pleasing to Him. Surely this godly fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Christ Made Unto Us Wisdom
In this sense, the wisdom of God is indeed available to every Christian, for in walking with the Lord, we can go forward with a consciousness of His guiding hand over us, and we can look to Him for help in every step of our pathway. When we are told, as noted above, that Christ is “made unto us wisdom,” it is the wisdom of God that is given for the walk of the believer down here. There is no restriction on this, for it does not depend on spiritual intelligence or knowledge; rather, it is the guidance that we experience in whatever circumstance we may find ourselves, in the walk of faith. Even if we have failed and perhaps missed the path, yet in owning this before the Lord, we can be assured of His help in getting back into the way of His choosing.
When we read of gifts, however, we find that they are not mainly connected with our personal walk. Rather, they are viewed as gifts to the church, and thus for the blessing of the whole body of Christ. Thus we read of “diversities of gifts,” “diversities of administrations,” and “diversities of operations.” They are connected with the precious truth of the one body, where each member contributes that which ministers to the good of the whole body. Paul enlarges on this in Ephesians, where he says that gifts were given “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).
The Gift of Wisdom
In 1 Corinthians 12 we have both the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom mentioned. But the gift of wisdom is mentioned first, possibly because it is rarer and more needful. We have already spoken about knowledge in a previous issue of this magazine (March 2019), but wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge in the right way to a particular situation. We recognize this even in natural things. A man may be very clever and have a large body of knowledge, yet lack the ability to apply it in a useful way. This does not mean that his knowledge is not valuable, but rather that it may take another to take this knowledge and make full use of it.
In speaking of spiritual wisdom, it is that special gift that can bring out God’s wisdom to bear on a situation or set of circumstances. It is similar to what characterized the children of Issachar in David’s time, who were “men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12:32). While we would not limit this understanding to only a few, yet God in His wisdom has given special gifts of wisdom to some. When they exercise this gift (in walking with the Lord), they are able to point out a way of acting in a situation that others, having the Holy Spirit indwelling them, are immediately able to recognize as the mind of the Lord, even though they may not, in themselves, be able to point out the way. As another has remarked, it takes an engineer to supervise the building of a road, but any who are able to drive on it can tell whether it is a good one or not.
We should be very thankful for all the gifts the Lord has given to His church. Surely the Lord may use anyone who is walking with Him to point the way in wisdom in a certain situation, but how helpful to have those who have a particular gift in that way! Such individuals may not have as much knowledge as some others, and they may not even be recognized as leaders or teachers among God’s people. Yet in their sometimes quiet way they have the gift of assessing before the Lord how God’s people should act. We need grace from the Lord to recognize such gifted ones and be ready to listen to their advice and counsel.
The Wisdom of Solomon
We find an example of this in the Old Testament, when king David was on his deathbed. There was some unfinished business concerning a man named Shimei, who had cursed David when David fled from Absalom. David committed the matter to his son Solomon, recognizing his wisdom, as he said to him, “Thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him” (1 Kings 2:9). Solomon did indeed exercise a great deal of wisdom in dealing with the matter.
In Ecclesiastes, we find an incident recorded where a wise man’s wisdom was exercised, yet not appreciated. A small city was besieged, and Scripture records that “there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. ... The poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard” (Eccl. 9:15-16). The foremost example of this is our Lord Jesus Christ, who by God’s wisdom has done a work on the cross that would deliver all who come to Him. Yet how often the wisdom of God at the cross is despised and deemed to be foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18)! So today, in spiritual things, sometimes the wisdom given by one who has that gift is not respected or heeded.
Whether it is God’s wisdom which was displayed at the cross of Christ or whether it is God’s wisdom through those to whom He has given that gift, it is a blessed thing when we recognize the Source of it and accept it.
W. J. Prost
The Pride of Man
On October 31, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, leader of the Hindu-nationalist BJP party, unveiled a statue of Sardar V. Patel, on what would have been his 143rd birthday. Patel was one of India’s founding fathers, and it was the government’s wish to honor him by raising a statue to him. What made the event more than a mere tribute to a great Indian nationalist is the fact that the statue stands 597 feet high. Called the “Statue of Unity,” it is almost four times as high as the Statue of Liberty and 177 feet taller than China’s Spring Temple Buddha, previously the world’s tallest statue. The message it sent was unmistakable. Modi’s own comment was, “This statue is an answer to all those who question India’s power and might.” An excited supporter of the statue remarked, “Take note of the message we are sending out to the world with this statue; just the thought of it sends shivers down my spine.”
The reactions of others have been predictable. The Washington Post remarked that the statue “says as much about India’s global aspirations as it does about the political ego of its leader,” while the opposition Congress Party in India mocked the fact that the bronze cladding for the statue was made in China. Others of the poor bitterly complained of the cost (more than $400 million U.S.), while many in India live in dire poverty. Local farmers in the state of Gujarat, in the area where the statue was built, also protested the expropriation of their land that was necessary.
The Competition
While some in the West may also mock at what seems to be a useless display of grandeur, we must recognize that “as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man” (Prov. 27:19). For some years now there have been competitions to see which nation can build the tallest structure or the tallest statue. China’s Spring Temple Buddha (built in 2002) was likely built specifically to be the world’s tallest statue at that time, while the huge Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 2,722 feet, was certainly a matter of pride when it became the tallest building in the world in 2010. However, it will soon be eclipsed by the Jeddah tower in Saudi Arabia, scheduled to be unveiled in 2021. Likewise, even the Statue of Unity will likely be outdone in a few years by an even taller statue, which the government is planning to build off the coast of Mumbai, India.
To the believer, all this only reminds us of the tower of Babel, which was begun well over 4,000 years ago. Man’s ambition at that time was to build “a city and a tower, the top of which may reach to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name” (Gen. 11:4 JND). As we know, God confounded their language and scattered them, so that “they left off to build the city.” But while man was scattered, his ambitions remained; only they were now concentrated in national interest and pitted against one another.
Inventions and Technology
In these last days, we see the pride of man reaching its zenith, as various discoveries, inventions and technology lead more and more to a feeling, not only of independence of God, but ultimately of the deification of man. After the church is called home at the coming of our Lord Jesus for us, the end result will be the worship of man, in the form of the Roman beast and the Antichrist. All this will be supported by “power and signs and lying wonders,” all orchestrated by “the working of Satan” (2 Thess. 2:9). More than this, God Himself “shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:11). Men who have refused the truth will be condemned to being seduced by a lie.
Along with this, there will be an expanding of what we see already, namely, the restless activity of the nations of the world, as each seeks to vaunt itself at the expense of the others. Already we are seeing “the fig tree [Israel] and all the trees” beginning to “shoot forth” (Luke 21:29-30), and we are also seeing somewhat of the “distress of nations in perplexity at the roar of the sea and rolling waves, men ready to die through fear and expectation of what is coming on the habitable earth” (Luke 21:25-26 JND). Doubtless this description is of events which will take place after the church is called home, but we are seeing the stage being set today, with warnings for man, if he will listen.
The Warning Signs
In all this there is a warning for believers as well, for we too must take care, lest our hearts be “overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life” (Luke 21:34). It is easy for us to be caught up in patriotism, along with the things of this world. Even the necessary “cares of this life” can cloud our view of the coming glory of Christ, if they are allowed to go beyond what is necessary for getting through this world.
Knowing where all this will end gives peace to the believer. The tower of Babel was never finished, but the day is coming when “a Stone” will be “cut out of the mountain without hands” and will break all of man’s glory in pieces (Dan. 2:45). At that time “the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isa. 2:17). The “Stone” cut out of the mountain is the Lord Jesus Christ coming in glory, and when all that opposes Him has been judged, “the Stone” will become “a great mountain” and will fill “the whole earth” (Dan. 2:35). For those who have been faithful to Him during His absence, there will be a reward, and especially “a crown of righteousness” for “all them also that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8). By faith we can look forward to that day!
Kings shall fall down before Him,
And gold and incense bring;
All nations shall adore Him,
His praise all people sing;
Outstretched His wide dominion
O’er river, sea and shore,
Far as the eagle’s pinion
Or dove’s light wing can soar.
Little Flock Hymnbook #40 Appendix
W. J. Prost
Wisdom From Above
In James 3 we are shown two kinds of wisdom. “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” Its works prove its nature and its source. There is confusion in every evil way, “but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.” Never reverse this order; it is not only that this wisdom is pure and peaceable, but it is first pure, then peaceable. It first maintains the character and glory of God, and then it seeks the fruits of peace among men. But this is not all. It is gentle and easy to be entreated or yielding. Instead of ever giving battle for its rights supposed or real, there is clearly the yieldingness of grace about it. It is not the stubbornness of self-assertion or opinionativeness. This, on the contrary, stamps the sensual, aspiring wisdom of man, but what comes down from above is gentle, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, uncontentious, and unfeigned. When a man is conscious that his wisdom is of a suspicious kind, one can understand him unwilling to have his mind or will disputed, but the truth is that there is nothing which so much marks the superiority of grace and truth and wisdom that God gives as patience and the absence of anxiety to push what one knows is right and true. It is an inherent and sure sign of weakness somewhere when a man is ever urgent in pressing the value of his own words and way, or caviling habitually at others. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated.” It is also “full of mercy and good fruits, without contention, and without hypocrisy.” It is characterized by the self-judgment which delights in and displays the ways of God. “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” Thus if there is peace in the way, righteousness is alike the seed and the fruit. The seed, as ever, must produce its own proper fruit. “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” What an honor to be sons of peace in a world ever at war with God and those who are His!
W. Kelly
Be at Peace Among Yourselves
The word Jerusalem means “a dwelling in peace.” Each gathering of believers should be a kind of miniature Jerusalem. In such case one is met with, “Wisdom that is from above [which] is first pure, then peaceable.” But where there is one who allows the flesh in correcting evil, such is allowing the very thing he is contending against, and he seeks the cleansing of another with soiled hands, as it were. To use the “water of separation,” you must be “a clean person” (Num. 19). Moreover, it does not say, “Wisdom that is from above is only pure,” but “first pure,” clearly implying it has other qualities. It is “peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy.” One mourns that the traits of gentleness and mercy are far too often wanting in those who contend for purity. And yet, God has joined these together, and shall we divorce them? Truth has its companion virtue: “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.”
F. C. Blount
The Vast and the Minute
Nothing can be less reverent or more inconsistent with modesty than some men’s offhand and random statements about the Word of God. The truth is that Scripture is always perfect, but men are not competent to speak unless taught of God. Thus, humanly speaking, there are those who could appreciate the wonders of the heavens, but are dull to perceive the divine construction of a daisy. Yet, to anyone that estimates aright, the perfect hand of God even in a daisy is just as clear and certain as in the solar system. It is only a question of the place which each creature of God occupies in His own immense scheme. His wisdom and power are displayed no less in the minute than in the grand and sublime. Thus there is no doubt that, if the telescope opens many a wonder to man, the microscope is not less impressive. They are both important instruments in the hand of man, and they are both intended, doubtless in God’s providence, to show man from the natural world a witness of divine power in what is above and also in that which is beneath.
But in all things what ought to be gathered from this natural world is not glory for man, but the wonders of God in what He has wrought. A similar principle applies to the Word of God; for therein if God displays Himself in what is vast, quite as much does He appear in ways whose minuteness might easily escape observation. Everywhere perfection is claimed for God, whether in what He has made or, above all, in that which He has written. And what He has written transcends that which He has wrought, because His mind and ways must transcend His outward works. For the Word of God is claimed to be the very highest place as the expression of His wisdom—His inner wisdom. That which is connected with matter must yield to what has to do with the mind and the affections, and, above all, the display of the divine nature.
W. Kelly (adapted)
Taught of God
The mind of Christ is what belongs to the saint as a new man. The Spirit of God first quickens, and then gives the mind of Christ, to mind the things above, as quickened out of the system of this world. He has the intelligence of Christ, through the Holy Spirit and the Word. It is the communicated mind of God as it has formed itself in His purposes of Christ.
When taught of God, we shall find proportion in truth; it will find its place. Where this is not the case, persons will overstate or wrongly apply truth, and find it will not work. Then, in place of judging themselves, they will judge the truth, and make no progress.
Error in judgment is connected with wrongness of affection. If a person says, I cannot see, then his eye is not single; he cannot justify himself before God. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Whenever we walk in conscience before God, we shall find our path simple: having the mind of Christ, things are as clear as day.
Bible Treasury
Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God
The God who spake, in divers ways,
At sundry times, by human voice,
Hath focused all His glory rays
In Christ, the Servant of His choice.
The bruised reed He will not break,
He heareth e’en the raven’s cry,
But arms against the Truth to take,
’Tis treason ’gainst the Lord most high.
God manifested in the flesh,
And in the Spirit justified;
Of angels seen; of saints confessed;
Was preached to Gentiles; glorified;
Made flesh, He dwelt mid sinners here,
The holy, everlasting Word;
He veiled the glory brought so near;
Faith saw it, owned in Him the Lord.
Eternal and co-equal Son,
The servant garb on earth He wore;
Made like to men, the blessed One
All human sorrows meekly bore;
The King, rejected, scourged and bound—
The cross adjudged His rightful place—
There David’s Lord, the Heir, was found,
Though stripped of all, supreme in grace!
For this, God set Him up on high,
All dignities, all powers above;
The living Jesus! Who could die
In witness of the Father’s love!
For this has God a name conferred
On Him, that does all names exceed;
And God be glorified indeed;
That every tongue should own him Lord.
Effulgence of His glory! Yes,
His very self expressed in grace:
Of God’s wide universe the stay,
Behold Him in the ordered place!
Behold the Man Christ Jesus! Now
Ascended, seated on the throne;
Before His face adoring bow,
God’s Power, His Wisdom, Christ alone!
Author unknown